Lawrence recalled her meeting with Mirchandani in a pub in Cambridge: “I’d been pressganged into driving some cricketers over there for a game, and it emerged in a late night conversation in a local pub that Cambridge were trying to rise a team as well. A challenge was issued and somehow the arrangements were made for a game. It was pretty ad-hoc, but we got there in the end. Looking back, I’m now very proud to think that what we started has finally led to the two teams playing at Twickenham.”

The road to the first Women’s Varsity Match was not an easy one – the women had nowhere to play, no kit to play in, and nobody to referee the match. One by one, things fell into place for the Oxford team. With Dark Blue shirts lent to the women by the Greyhounds, the match was set to be played on a Thursday at the home of OURFC, Iffley Road. At Cambridge, the women struggled to be taken seriously, and were denied access to Grange Road, and use of the Cambridge blue and white jerseys was strictly prohibited. Nevertheless, on 10th March, 1988, the Cambridge women made their way to Iffley Road, where they won the match 8-6. In 1989, the match was held at Grange Road, Cambridge, and for the next 26 years, The Women’s Varsity Match was held at either Oxford or Cambridge.

On 10th December, 2015, the 29th Women’s Varsity Match was held at Twickenham Stadium on the same day as The Men’s Varsity Match. With Cambridge taking the victory in 2015, the overall score currently stands at Oxford 18, Cambridge 11. From humble beginnings, to the home of England Rugby, The Women’s Varsity Match has grown from strength to strength. As 2015 Captain, Carly Bliss, said, “We want to show young women and girls that it is possible to enter academia at its highest level, alongside playing rugby on the biggest stage of all”. The Dark Blue squad’s preparation for Twickenham begins in early September, with pre-season training taking place before the start of Michaelmas Term. The Blues compete in the BUCS South Premiership, which now includes the Light Blues, and play matches every week leading up to the Varsity Match. The Varsity Matches serve as the peak of the season for both sides of the Oxford and Cambridge teams, and they will continue to be held on the second Thursday of December at Twickenham Stadium every year.